Chapter 6: The Story Behind Little Shell

I wanted to find her, but she vanished like water in the sea, no news at all.

The class teacher said she transferred.

How could she just transfer?

After she left the class WhatsApp group, I realised she hadn’t added a single friend.

I remembered in junior high when she went around asking us to add her as a friend in the yearbook, and none of us did.

I really regretted it.

I went to her colony to look for her, spent a hundred rupees to rent a Swiggy delivery uniform and knocked on her door, thought of thirty excuses and pretexts, knocked for a long time, but found they had moved.

The neighbour said they’d moved a week ago, said the kid changed schools.

I asked which kid?

The aunty pursed her lips, who else? The one you like?

My face turned red, I quickly denied it.

She said Meera’s mum scolded her in the neighbourhood, everyone knew she dated early. She saw how sneaky I looked and knew I was looking for Meera.

I stammered that I wasn’t dating early. I came to get my money back, Meera owed me.

The aunty sighed.

She said she’d watched Meera grow up.

That’s when I learnt.

Before marrying her dad, Meera’s mum had a previous marriage. The ex-husband was a good-looking fair guy, drank, gambled, and beat people.

Her mum was beaten badly, left her daughter who was just a few months old and divorced.

Later married Meera’s dad, then started missing the daughter who suffered before.

When she was little, Meera learnt all kinds of skills.

Later, when her sister came in eighth grade, her mum gradually cut them all off.

Her sister couldn’t dance, couldn’t sing, couldn’t paint, and would cry whenever she saw her sing or play an instrument.

Her mum said: “All Sharma family kids, no special treatment.”

At that time Meera was young and shouted at her mum.

“No, no! She’s not my dad’s kid! Her dad gambles and drinks, she’s not a Sharma! If she can’t learn I can’t, why?”

Her sister didn’t say anything then.

That night it rained heavily, her sister ran away alone in pyjamas, not a penny with her.

Her mum nearly went mad, Meera stumbled out with an umbrella to chase after her, her mum snatched the umbrella and threw it away, cursing her as an ungrateful wretch.

Meera was so scared she cried and said she was wrong, her mum kicked her and made her kneel in the rain, cursing her the whole time.

—“If we can’t find your sister you’ll kneel here till you die!”

—“Why? Because I’m your mum! You owe me! You owe your sister!”

—“So petty, you expect me to rely on you when I’m old? Heartless thing!”

Meera cried in the rain until she almost fainted, the family dog ran out and dragged her clothes to pull her home.

She hugged the dog and cried, didn’t dare move no matter who called.

Later, near dawn, her mum and sister finally came back.

Her sister was found at her dad’s hospital.

They said her mum found her kneeling at her stepfather’s empty hospital bed.

Meera’s dad had a relapse and was just sent to the ER.

Her sister cried to her mum, saying she came to see dad, she always saw uncle as her own dad, so many nights she wanted a dad like Meera’s, she didn’t want a dad who hit people, but she didn’t have one, her mum left before she was one.

Her mum hugged her sister and cried.

That night her dad didn’t make it.

Meera waited all night and got the news of her dad’s death.

Her mum brought her sister home, never looked at her once.

The aunty said.

“This child, once was cherished by her parents for over ten years, loved so much she could see her own toes, but suddenly went from princess to unwanted. Her mum says every day she killed her dad, when she cries, her sister cries harder. You don’t know, her sister always plays the victim, she’s got more tricks than a lotus pod, bullies her every time. Her mum forces her to admit she killed her dad, how could she admit it, her mum hates her, doesn’t care about her at all—hai Ram—”

She sighed and rambled. Finally she asked me.

“How much does she owe you?”

“I’ll pay for her.”